Guitar Notes (Mary Amato)

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         For Lyla, using the school practice room is part of her cello routine.  She's been playing since her mother died, and she's very talented.  But over the years, the pressure of competition has gotten to Lyla and her love of the cello has faded away.
         For Tripp, the practice room is a means for survival.  His mother took his guitar away in an attempt to force him to get a life.  Tripp doesn't want a life; he wants a guitar.  So he is secretly borrowing a school instrument to play during his lunch period.
         Lyla and Tripp use Practice Room B on alternate days.  They never see each other, but Lyla sees the trash Tripp left behind and leaves him a note of complaint in the strings of the school guitar.  And Tripp writes back.  Soon snappish exchanges turn into a musical challenge, and the unlikely pair become better friends than they would ever have thought possible.

         I liked the characters in this book quite a bit, but the progression of their relationship didn't really flow for me.  Lyla and Tripp are both nice people, so it's funny to see what they think of each other before they really know what the other person is like.  I was happy when they became friends because they understood one another in a way that their other friends (or not, in Tripp's case) didn't.  But when their casual friendship turned into a secret love, I just wasn't feeling it.  The ending just didn't seem right to me.  Over all, though, I thought Guitar Notes was a pretty good book.

Rating: 3/5
Completed: August 20, 2012

Happy first day of fall!  It's actually pretty nice weather today.  Much better than the cold and rainy homecoming game last night.  I skipped out on the game, but apparently we crushed the other team.  Football isn't really my thing, though - I get more excited about baking pumpkin treats.  What's your favorite part of autumn?  Post it in the comments.